9

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITARATURE

A. Theoretical Review

1. Grammar

Teaching English includes teaching listening,

speaking, reading and writing skill is taught in integrated

way. It was started from teaching vocabulary and

grammar. Term grammar is sense as the study of how

words and their components parts combine to form

sentence.7

According to M.F Patel and Praveen M. Jain,

grammar is a scientific statement of the principles of good

usage which concerns with the relation of words in the

sentence.8 In addition, grammar also refers to a

description of the structure of a language and the way in

which linguistic units such as words and phrases are

combined to produce sentences in the language.9In other

words, grammar defined as the way words are put

7 E-book : The American Heritage Dictionary of the English

Language, third edition, p. 3171

8 E-book : M. F. Patel and Praveen M. Jain, English Language

Teaching. (Jaipur: Sunrise, 2008) p. 141

9 E-book : Jack C. Richards, and Richard Schmidt, Longman

Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics, (Great Britain :

Pearson Education Limited, 2010), p. 251

10

together to make correct sentence.10

From several

definitions of grammar above, the writer infers that

grammar is study of sentence elements and structures.

Teaching grammar will help learners to comprehend

and produce language effectively both spoken and written.

In this matter, it includes all the concepts of grammar

such as tenses, part of speech and their function in

sentences, various types of phrases and clauses. The word

tenses above refers to verb form that shows the time of the

action or state; the present / past / future. Among the three

simple tenses, only simple past tense that use verb II.

2. Simple Past Tense

2.1 Definition of Simple Past Tense

Simple past indicates that an activity or

situation began and ended at a particular time in the

past.11

In other words, it is defined as one of the tenses

used to refer to complete events, states or actions, or it

refers to the event, state or action took place within a

finished period of time. In addition, simple past tense

refers to an action, activity or situation happened and

ended in the certain time in the past and the time is

10 E-book: Penny Ur, A Course in Language Teaching,

(Cambridge:University Press, 1996), p. 75

11

Betty Schrampfer Azar, Understanding and Using English

Grammar, (New Jersey : Prentice Hall Regents, 1989), p. 24

11

mentioned.12

According to Slamet Riyanto (2008 :

166), the simple past tense is a verb form that is used

to express one action which happened at a particular

time and repeated habitual actions in the past.

From above several statements of simple past

tense, it can be concluded that simple past tense refers

to an action that happened and finished in period of

time in the past.

xxx ● xxx

Past Present Future

2.2 The Form and the Pattern of Simple Past Tense

Learners often have difficulties in mastering

the forms of the past simple. In particular, they often

need opportunities to study and practice it, such as

mastering about question and negative forms,

irregular past tense form, and the spelling of regular

past tense forms.13

The forms of past tense are divided into two

kinds of sentence. They are nominal and verbal

sentence. In addition, each kind of sentences has three

sentence forms. They are affirmative, negative and

12Kardimin, Essential English Grammar, (Yogyakarta:Pustaka

Pelajar, 2005), p.318

13

Martin Parrott, Grammar for English Language Teachers,

(Cambridge : University Press, 2010) p. 218

12

interrogative sentence. For the more explanation can

be seen below:

a. Nominal Sentence

Nominal sentence isa sentence which doesn‟t

contains verb. In other word, the predicate of

sentence is to be.The table below is the pattern of

nominal sentence:

Sentence Form Pattern

Affirmative (+) S + was / were + Complement

Negative (-) S + was / were + Complement

Interrogative (?) Was/were+S+ Complement?

Table 2.1

The explanation of using be in simple past

tense are as follow:

Singular Plural

I

She

He + was

It

You

We

You + were14

They

Table 2.2

14 Betty Schrampfer Azar, Basic English Grammar¸ (Jakarta : PT

Prenhallindo, 2001), p. 176

13

The above table shows that, was used to

singular subjects (I, she, he, you, it), while were

used to plural subjects (we, you, they).

b. Verbal Sentence

Verbal sentence is sentence that contains

verb, in other word is the predicate of sentence is

verb. The table below is the pattern of nominal

sentence:

Sentence Form Pattern

Affirmative (+) S + V2 + O + Adverb

Negative (-) S + didn‟t + V1 + O + Adverb

Interrogative (?) Did + S + V1 + O + Adverb?15

Table 2.3

From the table above, the writer concludes

that verbal sentence of simple past tense is sentence

that contains verb II. In English, the transition of verb

I become verb II divided into two, they are regular

and irregular verb. 16

2.3 Regular and Irregular Verb

a. Regular verb is a verb which has the most typical

forms in its language for grammatical categories

15 Alexander Mongot Jaya , English Revolution, (Jepara : Mawas

Press, 2012), p. 173

16

Ahmad Kardimin, TOEFL Preparation Book untuk Pemula,

(Yogyakarta : Sketsa, 2014), p. 202

14

such as tense or person.17

There are some spelling

rules of regular verbs. Those are as following:

1) add –ed to the simple form (infinitive), for

example :

to work (v) = worked (v)

to ask (v) = asked (v)

2) if the verb ends in –e, add -d, for example:

to love (v) = loved (v)

3) Verb I which is ends in “y” preceded by a

vowel, so Verb II is formed simply by adding

suffix –ed, for example :

to enjoy (v) = enjoyed (v)

to obey (v) = obeyed (v)

4) When the infinitive ends in a consonant and it

is preceded by a vocal, so Verb II formed

with doubleconsonant, then added suffix -

ed,for example :

to admit (v) = admitted (v)

to beg (v) = begged (v)

5) When infinitive ends in “y” preceded by a

consonant, so Verb II is formed by changing

“y” become“i” and then added –ed,for

example :

17 E- book : Jack C. Richard and Richard Schmidt, Longman

Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics ... p. 493

15

to carry (v) = to carried (v)

to try (v) = to tried (v)18

b. Irregular verb is a verb which does not have

regular forms for tense, person, etc.

1) By using the same form as the present tense;

upset - upset; put - put

2) By having an irregular past tense form which

is also used as past participle; keep - kept;

catch - caught

3) By having an irregular past tense form which

is different from the past participle; drive -

drove - driven.19

The adverbs of time used in the simple past

tense are yesterday, last (night, week, month, year),

the day before, ago, at that time, in the past, in the

early time, in 1976, when, etc.20

3. Approaches in Teaching English Tenses

In the study of English grammar, tenses are the major

complicated problem for Indonesian learners. They have

18 Ahmad Kardimin, TOEFL Preparation Book untuk Pemula, ... p.

202

19

E-book : Jack C. Richard, Longman Dictionary of Language

Teaching and Applied Linguistics, ... p. 493 20

Alexander Mongot Jaya , English Revolution, ... p. 173

16

to know the various types of tenses and their different

rules. Therefore, an appropriate teaching strategy to help

the learners in understanding those English tenses is

urgently needed.

Talking about teaching strategy of English grammar,

there are two approaches that can be applied, especially in

teaching English tenses. The approaches are deductive

and inductive approach.

a. Deductive Approach

Deductive approach is an approach to

language teaching in which learners are taught rules

and given specific information about a language.

Then, they apply these rules when they use the

language.21

Deductive approach starts with the

presentation and explanation of the rules, and then it

is followed by the examples of the sentences using the

rules. In addition, in deductive approach the teachers

directly explain the rules of the English tense. The

explanation is completed with discrete sentences, and

21 E-book : David Nunan, Language Teaching Methodology,

(Sydney : Macquarie University, 1991) p. 156

17

it is followed with samples of sentences by the

learners to confirm their understanding.22

In other words,deductive approach defined as

an approach to teach students from the general to the

specific topic. This approach emphasize on teacher

center, so that the teacher need to give clear

explanation to students by explain them the concept

of tense include the rule and example.

b. Inductive Approach

Inductive approach starts with examples from

which a rule is inferred. The teachers do not give the

rule directly to the learners, they just give list of

sentences and from the sentences they ask the learners

to discover the rule by analyzing the provided

sentences in a discourse level.23

It aimed to make the

rules more meaningful and memorable.

It is different with the deductive approach. In

the inductive approach, students will teach from the

specific to general. It emphasize on students center, so

that students involved actively during the teaching

and learning process.In one hand, it will help the

22 I Ketut Trika Adi Ana, “Teaching English Tenses too EFL

Learners:Deductive or Inductive”, International Journal for Cross-

Disciplinary Subjects in Education (IJCDSE), (Vol. 2, No. 2, 2012), p.999

23

I Ketut Trika Adi Ana, “Teaching English Tenses too EFL

Learners:Deductive or Inductive”, … , p.999

18

learners, especially young learners, who cannot

understand the abstract concept of grammar, to learn

grammar unconsciously.

As an approach that emphasize on student

center, inductive approach is in a line with the

cooperative learning. In the cooperative learning,

(especially Numbered Heads Together), the students

accustomed to share their ideas and be responsible to

complete and answer the questions actively in a

group.

4. Cooperative Learning

4.1 Cooperative Learning

The term cooperative learning(CL) refers to

students working in teams on an assignment or project

under conditions in which certain criteria are satisfied,

including that the team members be held individually

accountable for the complete content of the

assignment or project.24

According to Olsen and

Kagan (1992:8), cooperative learning is grouping

learning activity organized, so that learning dependent

on the socially structured exchange of information

between learners in groups and in which each learner

24 Richard M. Felder and Rebecca Brent, Cooperative Learning,

(N.C. State University), p.2

19

is held accountable for his or her own learning and is

motivated to increase the learning of others.25

In

addition, according to Satrio Wahono (2012)

cooperative learning is a group of learning strategies

that provide a structured role for students by

emphasizing the interaction of students.26

From

several definitions of cooperative learning, the writer

infers that cooperative learning is a grouping activity

of students to work together as a team to solve a

problem or complete a task cooperatively.

Cooperative learning can provide young

children with opportunities to develop not only their

social and emotional skills, but also responsibility for

their social environment, and to feel a personal

commitment to the rules that are necessary for

positive social relationships. Moreover, it is aimed to

facilitate children‟s development by giving them

opportunities to solve problems on their own by some

elements of effective cooperative learning.27

By

applying cooperative learning model, students will be

25 E-book : Jack C. Richards and Throdore S. Rodgers., Approaches

and Methods in Language Teaching, (Cambridge : University Press, 2001), p.

192

26

Satrio Wahono, Strategi dan Model Pembelajaran, (Bogor:indeks,

2012), p. 171

27

E-book : Robyn M. Gillies and Adrian F. Ashman, Co-operative

Learning, (London and New York : Routledge Falmer), page 25

20

accustomedto share their ideas actively and be

responsible to accomplish a task.

In classroom scope, cooperative learning

lesson has six major phases or steps. First step is

lesson begins with the teacher going over the goals of

the lesson and getting students motivated to learn.

Second one is followed by presentation the

information often in the form of text. After that

students are then organized into study teams. Next,

students assisted by teacher, work together to

accomplish interdependent task, then presentation of

the group‟s end product. For the last phase is

recognition of group and individual efforts.28

The last

phase is commonly applied in the some cooperative

learning strategies include threypes of cooperative

learning. Those are informal, formal and base group

type of cooperative learning model.

a. Informal cooperative learning.

Informal cooperative learning involves

students working in small groups for a few minutes

to help students process what has been taught, to

think about a particular question, to assist the

28 Richards I. Arends, Learning to Teach, (New York : Mc Graw

Hill, 2007), p. 346

21

teacher to identify and address any

misunderstandings about the content, etc.

b. Formal cooperative learning (Johnson, Johnson

& Holubic : 2008)

Formal cooperative learning consists of

students working together, for one class period

over several weeks to achieve shared learning

goals and complete jointly specific tasks and

assignments.29

c. Cooperative base group.

These are long term, lasting for at least a year

and consist of heterogeneous learning groups with

stable membership whose primary purpose is to

allow members to give each other the support, help

encouragement and assistance they need to

succeed academically.30

The writer infers that formal cooperative

learning, informal cooperative learning, and

cooperative base group are different in the time period

to do the activity. Informal cooperative learning need

just a few minutes or in a meeting, while formal

cooperative learning need several weeks of meeting,

29 E-book : Robyn Gillies and Michael Boyle, Cooperative Learning

: A Smart Pedagogy for Succesful Learning, (The University of Queensland

4072), p. 4

30

E-book : Jack C. Richards and Theodore S, Approaches and

Methods in Language Teaching,... p. 196

22

and cooperative base group need long term at least a

year to do the activity.

If we look at the different time period of three

types of cooperative learning, may informal

cooperative learning is appropriate to used in teaching

English tenses, because the activities of informal

cooperative learning only need several minutes to

finish it. There are several methods of informal

cooperative learning often used by teachers. They are

Numbered Heads Together (NHT), Team Product

(TP) and Cooperative Review (CR).

5. Numbered Heads Together

Numbered Heads Together is part of a structural

cooperative learning model, which emphasizes the special

structures that are designed to influence the pattern of

student interaction. This type is developed by Kagan (in

Abraham, 2008: 28) to engage students in studying the

material covered in the lesson and check their

understanding of the lesson content.31

Numbered Heads

Together provides opportunities for students to share their

ideas and consider the most correct answer. Besides that,

31 Munawaroh, “The Comparative Study Between The Cooperative

Learning Model of Numbered Heads Together (NHT) And Students Team

Achievement Division (STAD) To the Learning Achievement in Social

Subject”, IOSR Journal of Research & Method in Education, ( Vol.5,No. II,

Jan-Feb/2015), p.24

23

Numbered Heads Together also can improve students‟

cooperation and individual accountability.32

From several

statements above, the writer infers that Numbered Heads

Together is a cooperative learning strategy provides

students to share their ideas in order to accomplish task

from teacher in a group.

As a strategy of cooperative learning, Numbered

Heads Together is appropriate to applied in teaching and

learning process. Beside students can share their ideas,

this activity also has some advantages for students.

5.1 The Advantages of Numbered Heads Together

There are some advantages using Numbered

Heads Together in teaching and learning process, they

are:

a. Train students to be able to cooperate and respect

the opinions of others.

b. Train students to become peer tutors

c. Foster a sense of togetherness

d. Make students become familiar with the

differences.

The some advantages of Numbered Heads

Together will be gotten by students when the

teacher apply it in the teaching and learning

32Miftahul Huda, Cooperative Learning,... p.138

24

process. In other hand, there are some

disadvantages of Numbered Heads Together that

should be attended by the teacher, those are teacher

must be able to facilitate the students and not all

the students get turn.33

Furthermore, there are some

steps to apply it in the teaching and learning

process.

5.2 The Steps of Numbered Heads Together

There are some steps in applying Numbered

Heads Together. They are:

a. The teacher has students number off within

groups, so that each student has a number; 1, 2, 3,

or 4

b. The teacher ask a question

c. The teacher tells the students to “put their heads

together‟‟ (gather) to make sure that everyone on

the team knows the answer

d. The teacher calls a number (1, 2, 3, or 4), and

students with that number can raise their hands to

respond. 34

33 Jumanta Hamdayama, Model dan Metode Pembelajaran Kreatif

dan Berkarakter, (Bogor : Ghalia Indonesia, 2014) p. 177-178

34

http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el_198912_kaga

n.pdf/, accessed on Wednesday, February 17th

2016, at 13.16 pm

25

6. Teaching Simple Past Tense Using Numbered Heads

Together

There are some ways to teach grammar for students,

for example teachers can use game as a technique, or they

can use learning strategy such as Numbered Heads

Together of cooperative learning model to teach simple

past tense. This learning strategy is aimed to make

students become more active and the class be more

alive.The use of Numbered Heads Toegether in teaching

simple past tense can be applied by some steps.

The some steps of Numbered Heads Together in

teaching simple past tense are:

a. Numbering

Teacher divides students to be some groups

(each group consist of 3 – 5 students) and gives every

students a number, so that every students in the group

has different number.

b. Questioning

The teacher asked questions to the students

through give paper consist of questions related to

simple past tense.

c. Head Together

Students think and discuss together to

describe the answer and ensure that every student

know about it.

26

d. Answering

Teacher call one number and the students

from each group with the same numbers raise their

hands and prepare the answers.35

At the end of the Numbered Heads Together

activity, the teacher and students make a summary

about the material. It aimed to ensure the students‟

comprehension in the concept of material

B. Previous Research

There have been some researchers who conductedthe

research in the same line as this research. Those researches

either same in the material focused or the method used, it can

be seen as follow:

1. A thesis written by Kamilatun Azizah (2011), entitled

“The Use of Number Head Together Words Game to

Improve the Students Mastery of Simple English

Sentence”. The result of the previous research is the use

of Number Head Together Words Game is very useful for

students. It can be seen by the average achievement of the

students‟ pre-test, it was 76.29 while it was 77.2 in the

35 Saekan Muchith, et.al., Cooperative Learning, (Semarang :

RaSAIL, 2010), p. 107

27

cycle one, and 80.35 in the cycle two and 85.23 in the post

test.36

The similarities of this research and the previous

research are using Number Head Together Words Game,

and using Classroom Action Research as a research

design. While the difference between the previous

research and this research is on the focus of research. The

previous research focus on improving students‟ mastery

of simple English sentence, but in this research is focus on

simple past tense.

The writer states that there is something new on this

research. This research is teaching simple past tense to the

eighth grade of Islamic Junior High School. While in the

previous research, the research focus is onteaching simple

English sentence to the fourth graders of Elementary

School.

2. A thesis written by Ovalina (2010), entitled Improving

Students’ Ability in Using the Simple Past Tense Through

Contextual Teaching Learning (A Classroom Action

Research at the 8th Grade Students of SMPN 17

Tangerang Selatan). The findings of this study indicated

that the implementation of Contextual Teaching Learning

was successful. The criteria of success were achieved. The

36 Kamilatun Azizah (2201407120), The Use of Number Head

Together Words Game to Improve the Students Matery of Simple English

Sentence, Unplushied Thesis, (Semarang : Semarang State University, 2011)

28

first criterion was 70% of students could pass the average

score ≥ 67 based on the KKM. The finding showed that

71.79 % of students had already achieved the target

score.37

The similarities of the previous research and this

research are on focus of research that is simple past tense

and the research design which is use Classroom Action

Research. While the difference between the previous

research and this research is on the learning method. The

previous research was using Contextual Teaching and

Learning while this research is using cooperative learning.

The writer states that there is something new on this

research than the other one. In this research, researcher

used the new strategy on teaching simple past tense. It is

Numbered Heads Together. In one hand, the researcher is

also use cards as a teaching media to support teaching and

learning process.

3. A thesis written by Luh Tri Jayanti Swastyastu (2014),

entitled “Improving Reading Comprehension of the Tenth

Grade Students of SMK N 5 Denpasar in Academic Year

2013/2014 by Using Numbered Heads Together.” The

result of this study showed that the students‟ achievement

in reading comprehension improved through the

37 Ovalina (2060140000161), Improving Students’ Ability in Using

the Simple Past Tense Through Contextual Teaching Learning, Unpublished

Thesis ( Jakarta : Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, 2010)

29

implementation of Numbered Heads Together strategy. It

was shown by the students‟ mean score in the tests. The

students‟ mean score in the pre – test was 6.06. Then it

improved to 6.46 in cycle I. It was 10 (28.57%) students

who are able to achieve the passing grade score ≥ 7.5.,

while in cycle II the students‟ mean score improved to

7.74 and it was 28 (80%) students who are able to achieve

the passing grade score.38

The similarities of the previous research and this

research are using Numbered Heads Together as learning

strategy and using Classroom Action Research as the

research design. While the difference of the previous

research and this research is on the research focus. The

previous research focus on reading comprehension, while

this research focus on Simple Past Tense.

The writer states that there is something new in this

research. That is using Numbered Heads Together to teach

simple past tense in Islamic Junior High School. It can be

a something new, because the Numbered Heads Together

can be used not only in teaching reading comprehension,

but also in English tense such as simple past tense.

38 Luh Tri Jayanti Swastyastu, Improving Reading Comprehension

of the Tenth Grade Students of SMK N 5 Denpasar in Academic Year

2013/2014 by Using Numbered Heads Together , Unplublished Thesis,

(Denpasar : Mahasaraswati Denpasar University, 2014),

30

C. Action Hypothesis

The hypothesis is a temporary answer to the research

question that has been expressed in the form of a question

sentence, or a theoretical answer to the formula research

problem, not the answer empirical data.39

Based on the statement above, the researcher makes

an action hypothesis that “The use of Numbered Heads

Together can improve students‟ mastery of simple past tense.”

39 Sugiyono, Metode Penelitian Pendidikan, ( Bandung : Alfabeta,

2007), p. 96